I have been using film clips since I was a school counselor and would do in-class interactive social skills lessons. I will bring DVD's into my office and play them for a client on my laptop. One clip I like to use with couples is from the first SPY KIDS film where the mother is telling her kids the story of how she met and married their father. The sequence is beautifully put together in terms of how she and her soon to be husband were spies working on different sides and began dating and hid their connection and then made the commitment. The mother narrates how her commitment to getting married was scarier than any spy mission. The scene of their wedding is a great illustration of commitment and action even in the face of turbulence and threats. Their wedding is interrupted by an attacking helicopter. There is a great shot of the priest holding the Bible while pages are blown out of it by the gusts from the helicopter's blades (challenges to our values and commitment). The last part of the scene that my couples find the most powerful is when the couple is running away and they look into each other's eyes as if telling each other, "I am in this with you no matter what." They then jump off a cliff together and escape into a speeding boat.
Therapeutically, after I show the clip I will invite the client to track in their body to see what was stirred by the images. Film clips are a great way to help clients move from image to sensation and process through fight, flight, and freeze responses.
- Max Stoltenberg, LPC, CHt